Right Angle began as a column in the now-defunct Sunday magazine in November 1991. The column allowed me the luxury of presenting an alternative to the prevailing left-liberal consensus in India. It has become the implicit signature tune for all my subsequent writings.

Monday, August 26, 2013

Congress, Master of PR Management

By Swapan Dasgupta

There are many people dotted all over the country
for whom the Congress is indeed the “default party”, as Rahul Gandhi conceded a
week or so ago. They vote for the Congress not because they always endorse the
policies of the party or are convinced that the Nehru-Gandhi family must always
rule India: the vote for the Congress is often a matter of habit, ingrained
into people’s minds by family custom or even neighbourhood tradition.

Last week I met many such “default” Congress voters
in eastern India. Almost to a man (and woman) they had only question: has the
Congress given up the battle for 2014?

The question may strike the hangers-on in Akbar Road
as contrived, but to most casual observers of politics it seems a pertinent
query. Yes, there is a flurry of activity trying to rectify the party’s
inadequate presence in the social media—a much over-rated phenomenon as far as
elections are concerned. There are also interesting interventions by, among
others, the oh-so-superior Salman Khurshid describing Narendra Modi as a
wide-eyed frog who presumably never benefitted from an Oxbridge exposure. There
was the casteist disdain of Ghulam Nabi Azad who equated the Gujarat Chief
Minister with ‘Gangu teli’ without inviting a harsh rebuke from the editorial
classes. And finally, there was the launch of an anti-Modi website by a curious
alliance of social snobs, human rights activists and Maoists which,
predictably, received generous coverage in the Hindu.

However, the issue of the Congress’ political
abdication doesn’t centre on what it is doing to preach to the converted or how
the activists are being kept busy running around like headless chicken. The
Congress, the party occasionally needs reminding, is in government. It is the
complete dereliction of this responsibility and the grim reality of a Prime
Minister who is seen but not heard that is prompting loyal Congress voters to
ask whether the party is seeking involuntary liquidation.

Take the events of last week. First, there was the
free fall of the rupee which was met with the Finance Minister reassuring the
natives in his halting manner that all is well. More than feeling comforted
that the “dream team” will soon drive away the pessimism and lead India to
superpower status, the erosion of the rupee generated an epidemic of black
humour. Second, there was the mysterious disappearance of the Coalgate files
and the equally mysterious reappearance of some of the lost documents—a feat
that made people wonder whether the spirit of the late Gogia Pasha had been
summoned. And, finally, the nation witnessed the Lady Bountiful assure a
bankrupt nation that no one in the country would go hungry again. Crisis? What
crisis?

Actually, the preoccupation of the government seems
to be focussed on information management. From the week prior to Independence
Day when we witnessed the awkward Ashok Gehlot asking a child what she was
writing to the new Bharat Nirman advertisements which has assured people that
India is full of colourful, smiling and frolicking natives, the brains trust of
the UPA has devoted its energies telling people pessimism is illusory and that
India should be in a state of ecstasy. Thus, the Capital’s leading pro-Congress
newspaper informed readers on Saturday morning that “PC pep talk ends Rupee’s
six-day fall” and that the “Currency sees biggest single-day gain in a decade”.
This spin was as credible as an American paper recording the 1932 Olympics
hockey final with the headline: “Bodlington scores”. The game, just in case
anyone has forgotten, was won by India 24-1. Likewise, when the Sensex shed
nearly a thousand points in just two days of trading, a financial paper deemed
it fit to list the stocks that were available at a bargain price.

This attempt to talk-up the mood has also coincided
with a campaign—again limited to the media—to tell people how horrible and deceitful
Narendra Modi really is. Thus, the Times of India showcased a story by a
reporter from Ahmedabad who got the impression that a shopping mall was
charging Muslims an entrance fee. This was followed by its sister paper writing
a stinging editorial decrying this institutionalised apartheid. The story
needless to say was a great example of impressionism in prose.

Then on Saturday, the Hindu had a front-page story
in its Delhi edition saying how someone had been coerced into saying ‘Narendra
Modi zindabad’. Considering how many publications have been arm-twisted into
making ‘Narendra Modi murdabad’ its editorial policy for advertising revenue
considerations, the story was about as indicative of a trend as Sheila
Dikshit’s comparison of Delhi with New York.

The larger point is
that the Congress hasn’t fled the electoral battlefield totally. It has merely
decided that the best way to fight the battle for the hearts and minds of India
is through manipulation and intrigue. This is something the Congress has
perfected into a fine art. For the past few years, it has withstood its falling
support in Parliament through the clever use of the CBI, even if it involves
compromising India’s intelligence agencies. Now, it has chosen to arm-twist the
Fourth Estate into being supportive. It’s an old trick that those who can
recall the run-up to the 1989 election will be familiar with. But people will
also remember that manipulative politics didn’t prevent voters from showing
Rajiv Gandhi the way out of Race Course Road. History, it would seem, repeats
itself—both times as a farce.Sunday Pioneer, August 25, 2013

1 comment:

Anonymous
said...

Brilliant Article!!!...I think you are one of the most enlightened analytical minds of our country. I was wondering if beyond analysis can take a stab at structuring a solution to this menace of media & bureaycarcy that Congress Raj has nurtured overs decades of rule or misrule

So more precisely, I am asking1. How to fix this corrupt media after Congress's departure in 2014?

About Me

The Right is an endangered community in India's English-language media. I happen to be one of the few to have retained a precarious toehold in the mainstream media. I intend this blog as a sounding board of ideas and concerns.
You can read the details of my education, professional experience and political inclinations on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swapan_Dasgupta).
RIGHT ANGLE is an archive of my published articles. USUAL SUSPECTS is my blog.